The provision of education to Nigerian citizens of school age is a directive principle contained in the Nigerian Constitution. Government is indeed required to carry out education responsibilities seen by many as the most significant key to human development. It is for this reason that both public and private schools are established.
The role of private schools must therefore be appreciated by government in complementing its statutory duty for the provision of education. Private efforts and initiatives by individuals and voluntary agencies in establishing schools should be regarded as a major contribution to the development of education which should wholeheartedly, morally and financially be supported by government. The intention of private schools is not monetary gain as such but providing educational opportunities for all to seize, leading to a keen spirit of competition with a view to concretizing quality standards.
While it is appreciated that government will cooperate with all education providers and stakeholders, appropriate rules and regulations must be stipulated to protect the quality of education in the setting of syllabuses and curricula, qualifications for teaching and other criteria that will ensure progress in the provision of education, check and stem abuses likely to run the system into jeopardy.
As a public policy, government attaches importance to general issues with matching laws at the State Assembly, the State Executive Council, Ministerial level and other types of delegated legislation. All these laws are subject to review from time to time to ascertain whether the circumstances leading to their creation remain valid.
The missionaries and other religious bodies took active part in establishing schools regarded as voluntary rather than private schools. Interestingly, government takes very keen interest in the provision of assistance, particularly deploying teachers to the voluntary much more than to private schools. The line of demarcation between these two schools is very thin as both charge tuition fees viewed by many as expensive. However, with the establishment and intervention of Parent Teachers Association PTA in schools, tuition fees are rationalized.
In terms of control, both private and voluntary schools must accept the influence of government on education policies. Government is vested with the power to reward efforts as well as to sanction deviation from its set standards. As mentioned earlier, fixing of tuition fees is negotiable between PTAs and the individual private or voluntary schools concerned. If there is no consensus, government intervenes and decides on a course of action considered reasonable. Private schools have thus lost their flexibility in autonomy which hitherto enabled them to design and decide their curricula and tuition fees.
It has to be borne in mind always that the government, private and voluntary institutions share the basic purpose of providing educational progress and development. As a senior partner in this symbiosis, the government rather than concentrating efforts on public schools should encourage private schools also with all available technical support and other incentives. As the quality of education appears to be in distress, expert help is very urgently required for the stabilization and maintenance of educational services based on prescribed curricula and policies. Stakeholders should therefore synergize and work out realistic plans targeted at achieving educational goals and objectives. Government still reserves the privilege to penalize or take over schools which fail to discharge their duties efficiently in accordance with laid down rules and regulations.
Conversely, this type of control should be matched with discretionary support where desirable particularly of manpower taking into account the performance of students in external examinations coupled with the adequacy and effectiveness of teaching staff. The regulations which bars private schools from enjoying government patronage to strengthen their manpower, if and when desperately needed, seems to have outlived its usefulness. It is however admirable that the Turkish, British, Egyptian, Lebanese and other foreigners based centers of education are somewhat allowed leeway to enjoy relative autonomy at least in designing own curricula.
Amb. BM Sani, mni,
Sharada Quarters, Kano
